The Band Photographs Press

Read the Vanity Fair Article about how Kickstarter Helped a Elliott Preserve a Piece of Rock History with The Band Photographs Book Project.

“Most fans will recognize the familiar vein of photos that harkens back to the old-timey portraiture of the late 19th century, but completists will rejoice at the first-ever publication of various outtakes from the time. You’ve seen the one where they’re all lined up, all serious-like, with the mountains in the background? Fine. We bet you haven’t seen the one from that series that includes Hamlet the black poodle. (Hamlet was originally Bob Dylan’s dog, but Dylan gave him to Rick Danko after the poodle started nipping at his young children.) All told, more than half of the book’s photographs have never been published before, including some stunningly vibrant infrared photos of the likes of Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson,Richard Manuel, and Robbie Robertson.”

Read Night Flight exclusive interview with Elliott Landy about The Band and his new photography book.

“The hardcover book is 12×12, album cover size, allowing for the intimate photos to be as large as possible (and the printing quality is top notch).”

“This book is The Band as we all want to remember them at their most innocent; they’d not even performed a single concert yet in some photos. ”

“LANDY: ‘They just wanted to be left alone to play their music, and they were loving people, they were very gracious to their fans. I used to see Levon and Rick just genuinely embrace people that they met. We would be walking in the street, and they would honor the man that worked in the meat store, in Woodstock Meats, and they were as sweet to that person as they would have been to the president of the record label. They were really beautiful people like this. There was no class distinction in their mind, a human being was a human being.’

‘I wanted to share this part of their nature, this is really what they were about, this is what my pictures of them were about, that’s why they’re so harmonious because they lent themselves, their beings lent themselves, to the vibration that they were part of, that they created, lent themselves to this kind of visual harmony that exists in my photographs.’

‘I was friends with them, so in that way I was part of it, but I wasn’t part of the creative process. My part of the creative process was that I stayed out of it, not interfere, not get in the way, and just document it.’

“The book is a sumptuous volume, indeed. It’s out now, on Backbeat Books, an imprint of publisher Hal Leonard. But it represents the artistic concept of Landy alone, financed by Kickstarter, the crowd funding source, from which Landy gathered an astonishing $200,000, the most ever collected for a book of photography.”

“[Landy]: ‘I think in music, and amongst music aficionados they’re considered one of the best and most original bands. Taplin explains that…See, I don’t know anything about this at all, the nomenclature of music. What I say is that this is organic music, they were very natural people, they were not affected at all, they treated everybody with equal kindness, whether they were a record company executive or whether they were the deli guy making a sandwich for them. You were all equally respected. What they created together, the harmony, the connectedness of their music, the feeling space and life, touched people.’”

“[Landy]: ‘Before I photographed them I hadn’t heard their music. When a musician plays, he’s putting a vibration out there into the universe — art is a manifestation of a person’s inner being — so I felt immediately comfortable with these guys, and they with me. They invited me in, they never minded me being there and taking pictures…I was inspired. The music is like food, I hear it and it feeds my desire to take pictures of them.’”

“The time and effort has been worth it. Not only will plenty of these images be unfamiliar even to diehard fans of The Band, but they’re presented impeccably. This is most apparent towards the end, when a section devoted to Landy’s experiments with infra-red film provides a series of beautifully vivid spreads.”

“Elliot Landy’s The Band Photographs: 1968-1969 is one of those books that I would definitely make room for on my coffee table

“This book is breathtaking in style and subject matter. Even if you aren’t a fan of the Band and their music, you can still appreciate the warmth and depth of each photograph. ”

“[The] intimacy is strikingly apparent in the photos presented in this volume and makes the images captured feel both immediate and legendary, somehow, at the same time.”

“…nearly every single page of this book contains a photo that could stand on its own as an art print, hanging on a wall somewhere. ”

“ As a work of pure photographic art, this book is guaranteed to awe. If you’re a fan of The Band — or of Elliot Landy — it’s a must-have. If you’re keen on Americana and that fabled time in music history, you can’t go wrong. ”

“Photographer Elliott Landy was in the right place at the right time—documenting The Band making their first two albums, Music From Big Pink and The Band. The 200 photos in The Band Photographs, 1968-1969(Backbeat Books), many published for the first time, are refreshingly intimate portraits of five nonconformist musicians creating the proto-genre we now call ‘Americana’ music.”

Geeks and Beats. 1/18/2016.

“Growing up, I wasn’t the biggest Band fan. I liked their music. But didn’t buy their albums. They weren’t my first choice to listen to when in the mood to spin the Wheels of Rage. But I’m a huge fan of photography and music nerdery. The Band Photography, a blood-sweat-and-tears project form photographer, Elliott Landy has made me a fan of The Band.”

“The book tells gives a sweet picture of camaraderie. Gives a historic snapshot of rock history. And tells a beautiful picture of the Canadian-American roots rock group. The coffee-table book will have a music fan enthralled for hours, star-gazing through the photos, just having a feeling that they were there with Landy.”

They helped set the tone of what was the Artist and who was the Pop musician. To this day The Band has always been somewhat of a Classic Rock Mystic. Who were they and what kept them so humble. Now the pictures have been released. Each setting the tone by way of understanding the images of today’s Artists versus Pop stars. From the iHeart Radio Studio I’m Unplugged and Totally Uncut with famed photographer Elliott Landy. Once in a while a photographer gains the trust of an artist or a band, and his work fuses with that of the artist in such a way that the two become married in the public consciousness. One can think of David Duncan’s pictures of Picasso at work or Alfred Wertheimer’s pictures of Elvis backstage in 1956. Elliott Landy’s chronicle of The Band from 1968-1969 is of similar importance. He was trusted so deeply that this group of photographs is as intimate a portrait of a group of musicians inventing a new music as you are ever likely to come across. Today we call that music “Americana,” and it is played all over the world by everyone from Mumford and Sons to the Zac Brown Band. But in 1968, when Elliott first started making these pictures, it was played by six musicians in the town of Woodstock, New York Bob Dylan and a group called The Hawks. They later changed their name to The Band. They had been The Hawks for five years when Bob Dylan pulled them out of Tony Mart’s dive bar on the Jersey Shore to be his band.

A photographer who captured the Woodstock Music and Art Fair and an iconic image of Bob Dylan has released a book with lively, engaging and never-before-seen pictures of another of his favorite subjects – The Band.

Elliott Landy, who lives in Woodstock and whose famous photo of Dylan graces the cover of the former Ulster County resident’s “Nashville Skyline” album, has published “The Band Photographs, 1968-1969.”

The book of photographs captures with sweeping images the then-Woodstock-based band that generated some of modern rock music’s most enduring songs – “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “The Weight” and “Up on Cripple Creek” among them.

Along with a wide perspective on The Band, Landy’s pictures serve up plenty of nuance, plenty of detail, on instruments, amplifiers, characters, setting and expression…

If there’s one photographer who has defined 1960s rock music, it’s Elliott Landy. The Bronx-born lensman, who has lived in the Town of Woodstock since late in the decade, is well known for having created some of the most iconic album-cover portraits of the era, among them Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline, Van Morrison’s Moondance, and The Band’s Music from Big Pink and The Band. The legendary latter act is the focus of The Band Photographs: 1968-1969 (Backbeat Books), a new fine-art book overflowing with classic and previously unseen images of the fathers of Americana. “When I first met them, The Band didn’t even want to have a name,” says Landy about the famously down-to-earth subjects who rehearsed up the road in a West Saugerties house they called Big Pink. “That doesn’t make sense commercially. But when they were playing with Bob Dylan they saw what being locked in by your success could be like, and they didn’t want to be known for doing one certain kind of music.” Besides being the definitive collection of Band photos, the lush tome was the center of a Kickstarter campaign that raised nearly $200,000 (the second-highest amount of money ever raised for a photography book on Kickstarter, according to Landy) to cover the book’s ultra-high-quality production.

Landy, whose pictures have adorned the covers of Life, the Saturday Evening Post, Rolling Stone, and other publications, also shot such rock luminaries as Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Jimi Hendrix and has published other books of his work. As the official photographer of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, his credentials as the visual chronicler of the so-named generation are impeccable. “The Woodstock Festival was a manifestation of the consciousness of a large group of people who wanted and deserved peace and love,” says Landy. “Which is something I still believe in, and something that relates to questions we’re still asking now about the world.”

Photographer Elliott Landy to Release The Band Photographs, 1968-1969Elliott Landy, who has photographed the likes of Bob Dylan and the Band, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Joan Baez, Van Morrison and more, is releasing his book, The Band Photographs, 1968-1969 and hosting a book signing in New York this weekend. The photo book contains over 200 intimate black and white and color photographs of the legendary group in the midst of recording their first two records. The project started as the most-funded photo book Kickstarter in history. The book features commentary by John Simon, who produced those two albums, and an introduction by Jonathan Taplin, former Band tour manager.

Finally, a quick note to say that Elliott Landy’s Kickstarted book of The Band Photographs (Big Pink etc) is now available in various enhanced formats from his web site … and going fast … (there’s a preview there as well as on Amazon) and from book stores. Prices range from $45 to $500 and Elliott’s web site is offering the first edition print of the book. I mention this because, although they are in a minority, there is a section of infrared photos amongst this set. I wrote more about this almost exactly a year ago.

The Band Photographs: 1968-1969 (Backbeat) by Elliott Landy. This book of beautifully reproduces Landy’s black-and-white images of the quintet, offering an up-close and intimate look at the Canadian-American roots rock band that backed Bob Dylan between 1965 and 1967. By the time these photos were taken, the group had begun to be known simply as The Band and were performing on their own. Photos include group shots for albums as well as loads of candids. Best read with The Band playing on your system.

December 13, 2015 Renowned photographer and longtime Woodstock resident Elliott Landy has released a new book, “The Band Photographs: 1968-1969” that features exclusive photos taken by Landy of the legendary rock group.

It contains more than 200 photos documenting The Band during the time they made their first two albums, “Music From Big Pink” and “The Band.” More than half of the photos, drawn from Landy’s archive of more than 12,000 images, have never been published before. The book was financed by the online crowdfunding site Kickstarter.com, and is reported to be the highest-funded photography book in its history.

Landy, born in 1942, began photographing the underground music culture in New York City in 1967. He photographed many rock-and-roll superstars, both backstage and onstage, from 1967 to 69. His images of Bob Dylan and The Band, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Joan Baez, Van Morrison, Richie Havens, and many others documented the music scene during that classic period of rock-and-roll. Landy was also the official photographer of the 1969 Woodstock Festival held in Bethel.

Once in a while a photographer gains the trust of an artist or a band, and his work fuses with that of the artist in such a way that the two become married in the public consciousness. One can think of David Duncan’s pictures of Picasso at work or Alfred Wertheimer’s pictures of Elvis backstage in 1956. Elliott Landy’s chronicle of The Band from 1968-1969 is of similar importance. He was trusted so deeply that this group of photographs is as intimate a portrait of a group of musicians inventing a new music as you are ever likely to come across. Today we call that music “Americana,” and it is played all over the world by everyone from Mumford and Sons to the Zac Brown Band. But in 1968, when Elliott first started making these pictures, it was played by six musicians in the town of Woodstock, New York Bob Dylan and a group called The Hawks. They later changed their name to The Band. They had been The Hawks for five years when Bob Dylan pulled them out of Tony Mart’s dive bar on the Jersey Shore to be his band.

The hardcover book features more than 200 photographs by acclaimed photographer Elliott Landy documenting the Band during the time they made their first two albums, Music from Big Pink and The Band. More than half of the photographs, drawn from Landy’s archives, are previously unpublished.

A new fine-art book featuring pictures of The Band taken by acclaimed photographer Elliott Landy early in the group’s career is available now.

The Band Photographs, 1968-1969 includes more than 200 images of the influential rock act, most of which were previously unpublished, capturing Robbie Robertson , Levon Helm , Rick Danko , Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson while they were working on their first two studio albums — 1968’s Music from Big Pink and 1969’s The Band .

The photos include candid shots taken in and around the house shared by Danko, Manuel and Hudson in West Saugerties, New York, that came to be known as “Big Pink,” where the group members and their mentor, Bob Dylan , wrote and recorded many songs. Among the other pics that appear in the book are well-known posed black-and-white shots resembling images from the Civil War that feature The Band’s members wearing old suits. The book also includes onstage photos, pics of The Band with Dylan and images taken during recording sessions in the Los Angeles area.

A new fine-art book featuring pictures of The Band taken by acclaimed photographer Elliott Landy early in the group’s career is available now.

The Band Photographs, 1968-1969 includes more than 200 images of the influential rock act, most of which were previously unpublished, capturing Robbie Robertson , Levon Helm , Rick Danko , Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson while they were working on their first two studio albums — 1968’s Music from Big Pink and 1969’s The Band .

January 26, 2016 This August, The Weight, a band featuring former members of The Band, Levon Helm Band and Rick Danko Group, will host Camp Cripple Creek, a “Celebration of the Music and History of The Band” that will include concerts, interactive workshops, clinics, talks, open mics and more. The camp will take place at the Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, NY, on August 22-26 and will feature special guests like Jackie Greene, John Simon, producer of some of The Band’s most famous albums, Elliot Landy, music photographer who worked with The Band and recently released a photo book of his work with them, and Don LaSala, owner and historian of Big Pink, the legendary studio where The Band recorded their music. More guests are expected to be announced. A portion of the proceeds from Camp Cripple Creek will go toward Levon’s Barn concert series.

January 18, 2016 Almost two years ago, we told you about Woodstock-based rock ’n’ roll photographer Elliott Landy’s Kickstarter campaign to fund production of a book of his photos of the Band. At the time, he’d raised $35,000 of his $65,000 goal. Would he make it? We thought the quality of the perks he was offering would get him over the finish line, but we really had no idea. By the time the campaign ended just over a month later, he’d raised $193,626. Talk about spreading the love.

November 29, 2015 My book The Band Photographs, 1968-1969 has just been published and is available at bookshops and online booksellers in the USA. I am offering a sale, until December 12th, of the two “enhanced” editions of the book and selected Fine Art prints at a discount. The DeLuxe edition (which includes a Fine Art print) is being offered for $100 less than its retail price and prints are offered at savings up to $750. The two “enhanced” editions I am offering are not currently available elsewhere.

Until December 12th I am offering copies of the Signature and Deluxe Editions of the book along with selected Fine Art prints at a discount. The DeLuxe edtion (which includes a Fine Art print) is being offered for $100 less than its retail price and prints at savings up to $750. This book was financed by the crowdfunding site, Kickstarter.com and is the highest funded photography book in their history. This sale is offering the same prices as I offered during the Kickstarter campaign.

The Regular Edition of the Book, published by Backbeat Books, is available from booksellers now. Click the link below for information about the three editions and my sale…

“The Band Photographs” Defines a Moment in Time — Woodstock Times Feature

by BRIAN HOLLANDER on Dec 25, 2015

Elliott Landy stands over a stack of proofs that he used to decide what would go into his new book, The Band Photographs, 1968-1969. Each one represents what two facing pages would look like in the book, printed on glossy paper, each page a 12-inch square (coincidentally, the same size as a vinyl record album.)

“First Rachel (Ana Dobken), the editor of the book, went through 12,000 slides and negatives and contact sheets — 12,000 images and picked out ones that she thought belong in the book. Over the years I’ve had my own choices of images, so we piled everything together, the ones she found that I had never picked before, and then made proofs. There are a lot that are not in the book…look at this…wow, I haven’t seen these…there’s enough for another book!”